No. 25 Iowa State Beats Iowa, 3-1

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The No. 25 Iowa State volleyball team was required to show some fight Saturday night against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. However, the Cyclones were able to rise to the occasion, and took the match 3-1 (25-11, 27-29, 25-23, 25-20) over the rival Hawkeyes.

The win improved Iowa State to 6-4 on the season, while Iowa fell to 9-3. The result, part of the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series, narrowed the series score to 5-2 in favor of Iowa.

Turning Point of the MatchAfter Iowa State came from behind to take the third set 25-23, Iowa showed they had the potential to take the match to five sets as they pulled ahead 14-13 in the fourth. An Iowa error tied the set at 14-14, then head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch decided to keep Mackenzie Bigbee in the match to serve. The decision was an extraordinary one as the Cyclones ran off an 8-0 run, which included three Bigbee aces, to get ahead 21-14 before eventually closing out the match at 25-20 in the fourth.

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Cyclone Match Ball Goes To…Mackenzie Bigbee. Playing about 30 miles from her hometown of Williamsburg, the sophomore put on a show for the big cheering section that made the trip to see her. Bigbee led Iowa State with 16 kills at a .394 hitting percentage. In the fourth set, Bigbee made her most surprising contribution when she recorded the first three service aces of her career during an 8-0 ISU run to help close out the match.

Honorable mention to Kristen Hahn, who after only recording one dig in the first set finished the match with 21 digs. Also, an honorable mention to Ciara Capezio, who posted her third double-double in four matches with 12 kills and 12 digs.

Cyclone Nation, who was your player of the match? Tweet the player along with the hashtag #CyclONEmatchball to @CycloneVB and we’ll announce the fan’s pick later before tomorrow’s match.

Quoting Christy Johnson-Lynch“We got a little comfortable and lax after the first set, and Iowa made us pay in the second and third set. We had to get back to serving really tough and get the serve-and-pass game back in our favor. We made our blocking schemes more simple to get more touches. In the end, we needed to play hard and be aggressive to close out sets and the match.”

Cyclone Notes*The victory marked the ninth consecutive win for Iowa State against Iowa. Christy Johnson-Lynch is 8-0 in her career against the Hawkeyes. Iowa State last lost to Iowa in 1997.*For the third time this season, Iowa State posted 60 kills as a team. The Cyclones won all three matches, the others being Texas A&M and UNI.*Jenelle Hudson tied a career-high with four kills.*Mackenzie Bigbee posted the first three service aces of her career in the match.*Kristen Hahn recorded 21 digs, marking her 50th consecutive match with at least 10 digs. It was also the 38th match of Hahn’s career with at least 20 digs. She now has 1,512 digs in her career.*Ciara Capezio earned a double-double with 12 kills and 12 digs. It marked her third double-double in the last four matches.*Tory Knuth had the most efficient hitting match of her career (min. 15 attempts) with her eight kills on 16 attempts for a .500 hitting percentage.

After each match, one tweet will be chose as the “Fan Tweet of the Match”. Fans are encouraged to tweet @CycloneVB during the match and should check cyclones.com to see if their tweet was chose as “Fan Tweet of the Match”.

On DeckThe Cyclones begin Big 12 play next Saturday when they take on the Baylor Lady Bears at Hilton Coliseum at 4 p.m.